


Even The Bad Ones

by EarthPrinceWu



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 16:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2514023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthPrinceWu/pseuds/EarthPrinceWu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wu's recently lost a member of his family, his great-aunt and the late Earth Queen Hou-Ting. A stranger comforts him over it.</p><p>This takes place before the three-year time skip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even The Bad Ones

**Author's Note:**

> Done for an angst meme over on Tumblr. I was asked by a Ming-Hua roleplayer for angst, and I rolled an 18, which gave me this scenario:
> 
> #18: A family member of my muse’s just died and yours is trying to comfort them.
> 
> It turned out interesting enough.

Sniffles and tears were all the prince knew for days. He had received word that his great aunt Hou-Ting, the great and formidable Earth Queen, had been killed at the hands of revolutionaries. He had no one left, the rest of his family had long since died in strategic murders in order to rouse the Earth Queen, but she had never budged. 

And now she was gone too.

Responsibility for Ba Sing Se…nay, responsibility for the entire  _Earth Kingdom_  now rest upon him. A mere boy. Not only that, but he was now to represent his entire kingdom to the rest of the world’s nations.

How could they expect him to do that? How could they place this burden upon him? He was just a boy. Just a small, little boy who had no family nor any idea what to do with all this power. 

How could this happen?

They said it had been revolutionaries, four of them. He didn’t even care anymore. It didn’t matter who did it. It mattered that it had been done. His great aunt Hou-Ting was the only one, all the family he had left. She had never been close to him, but she had made sure he had for want of nothing. Well provided for, spoiled even, even doted upon by servants and caretakers.

But now she was gone. And he was all alone.

He couldn’t stand it in the palace anymore. He had snuck out, donning a simple jacket to cover his elegant clothing as though that would be all that was required to disguise his identity. He couldn’t stay with caretakers and servants who kept sending him pitying glances and whispering behind hands whenever he walked past. He needed privacy…and what better way than in a public place?

And so Wu found himself out on a park bench at night, eyes wont to look at stars were they not so full of tears.

"Hey kid," a voice chimed in, a bit dark and grisly. Feminine. A woman with rather large sleeves came and sat by him, watching him with dark, intense eyes. For all the scariness she could exhibit, he also could pick up that part of the intensity was due to passion and compassion. "Are you alright?"

Wu sniffled and laughed, a broken, feeble sound. “You know, you’re the first person to ask me that. I’ve been here for hours…”

"People don’t like to get in other people’s businesses. Me, on the other hand…" She looked him up and down, studying him as though trying to figure out his history. "I love a good story." She crossed her legs, the arms presumably under her sleeves coming to rest on them. "So lay it on me. Sounds like you could use a good venting."

Wu’s enormous emerald eyes flickered between her dark, clever ones as though trying to determine whether or not to trust her. Ultimately, he seemed to toss any deliberation or caution to the wind as he opened up, relaying his entire situation to her.

It may have been unwise, telling a total stranger his entire story; it may have even been stupid, considering he had yet to be coronated and was out in the open…but Wu considered it stupider still to pass up on a chance to have a therapeutic conversation with a non-judgemental stranger.

And so he spoke and so he spoke, while the woman simply listened and gazed at the stars. Wu had also been gazing at the stars as he revealed everything, feeling foolish if he looked her in the eyes as he came clean, something the woman seemed to recognize and respond to by training her eyes on the heavens above.

"She was all I ever had, the only one I had left," Wu whispered, trailing off that thought as the unspeakable sadness welled up inside him. Tears began to scroll down his cherubic cheeks as he kept his eyes locked skywards, and the woman finally turned to look at him.

"I’m sorry you went through that loss," she said, tone surprisingly soft and compassionate. "Loss is a fact of life, as surely as love, hurt, pain and death. She may be the only blood family you had left, but you can still make a family of your own. Family  _you_  choose. Friends, companions, soulmates until the end of your journeys and end of time. You’ve so much more to live for, and trust me, when you find your true group of friends, as strange and oddly peculiar though they may be, they will love and cherish you for you in a way the Earth Queen never could. Trust me, I know from experience about having friends I never thought I would. And when you find your soulmate…” she trailed off for a moment, offering a truly beautiful, cheery smile that lit up her whole face. Whereas before she had looked gaunt and menacing, she now looked more…human, approachable, reassuring. “Well, you’ll find out how much more life there’s left to live. How much more there’s to experience. How much love, trust, and pleasure you will come across. Don’t give up yet. For your friends. For your lover.”

Sniffling, Wu looked at her with eyes that conveyed a crushed soul, tear-stained cheeks hot at first and cooling against the night time windy chill. “You r-really think someone will l-love m…me?”

The woman gave a smaller smile than before, but no less sincere. She moved her hands beneath her oversized sleeves, and the tears from Wu’s eyes moved from his cheeks, consolidating onto floating drops in the air that the woman easily discarded. Wu realized with astonishment that she was a waterbender. 

"I believe there’s something out there for anyone, kid. No matter how bad you think you are, or how bad you  _actually_  are, we all deserve love.”

"Even the bad ones?"

“ _Especially_ the bad people. Love can redeem anyone. Even me.”

She stood up abruptly, head turned skyward and to the side, as though looking towards something on the invisible horizon. “I’ve lingered too long. My friends will be waiting for me.” She gave a comforting pat on Wu’s back. “And I’m sure, one day, your friends will be waiting for you.”

She left quickly after that, disappearing into the distance and shadows, leaving Wu to wonder on what the woman had said. He sniffled a few more times, brushing away new tears before giving a tremulous smile.

"Yeah…" he murmured, as though trying to believe in his own words. "…They will be."

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found at wutheearthprince.tumblr.com


End file.
